


Ancient Chinese Wisdom

by project_break



Category: Super Junior-M
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coworkers, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 10:43:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/project_break/pseuds/project_break
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyuhyun writes for Siwon's business. Mi makes his life tough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ancient Chinese Wisdom

_Happiness is the rise of the sun after a night of fierce storms._

The way that Kyuhyun came into his job was, like many other things, Heechul’s fault.

“I know this guy whose dad has this business that the guy runs and he’s looking for a guy to do something,” Heechul explained from somewhere below the tabletop and his fourth hard lemonade. “You’re a guy.”

Kyuhyun agreed that he was, in fact, a guy, which somehow translated into him receiving a phone call a few days later from “Siwon Choi. Heechul Kim told me that you were interested in a position I have available.”

One incredibly vague, almost disturbingly cheerful phone interview later, Kyuhyun secured a job in which he actually had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do until he walked into the office. And then he nearly walked right back out.

_Vexing rains will uncover once-buried opportunities._

“Have you noticed that a lot of your work has a very… weather-y aspect to it lately?” Mi Zhou, Siwon Choi’s assistant, was leaning over Kyuhyun’s shoulder and poking his pointy nose into places it didn’t belong. Again. 

Kyuhyun looked out the window at the torrential downpour which hadn’t let up on New York for three days. 

“No,” he said.

“Hmm. No? All the same, I don’t think it could hurt to diversify a bit. After all, Ancient Chinese Wisdom came about during all seasons!”

Kyuhyun looked at Ancient Chinese Wisdom-filled computer screen. He added, _Irritating coworkers will eventually find their way under the number 12 bus._

“Kyuhyun!” Mi sounded scandalized in that special way that only he could really achieve: a perfect mixture of hurt, disbelief and, inexplicably, disappointed housewife. 

“Mi!” Kyuhyun shot right back, in the best approximation of that tone he could achieve.

“Yes!” said Mi. “You!”

Before meeting Mi Zhou, Kyuhyun had never **literally** headdesked. After meeting Mi Zhou, a small dent formed in the wood between the keyboard and the edge of Kyuhyun’s work station. 

“Anyway,” Mi said once Kyuhyun pulled his head back up, “that’s way too specific. Remember: universal applicability!”

Really, it was more of a medium-sized dent.

_The course of true love never did run smooth._

“I feel like I’ve heard this one somewhere before,” Siwon said, leafing through Kyuhyun’s weekly contribution to the piles of paper on his desk. 

“Nope,” Kyuhyun said.

“I’m pretty sure I have…” Siwon insisted, scowling a little. “Hey, Ryeowook!” 

Siwon’s secretary popped his head into the office.

“Yes?”

“‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’”

“Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He caught the look on Kyuhyun’s face and blanched (“Erp!”) and scurried back around the door. 

“Kyuhyun,” Siwon folded his hands and leaned over his desk in the position that Kyuhyun liked to think of as The Lecturer, “please, can you try not to plagiarize? I know I’ve said this to you before, but we can get our socks sued off for this kind of thing.”

Kyuhyun had a hard time seeing where Shakespeare was going to show up with a team of high-powered legal aid and sue any piece of clothing off their bodies, but he wisely decided to stay silent. He did kind of need the money.

“You’re the best writer we’ve ever had, but if you keep doing things like this, I’m going to have to fire you.”

“Fire him?” Mi had hearing like a fucking bat only when it was to Kyuhyun’s disadvantage. “What did he do this time?”

“Nothing!” Kyuhyun hastened to assure him, turning around in his chair and coming face to face with Mi’s belt buckle. He looked up, up, up and saw that stupid looking scowl of disapproval wash over his features.

“Not nothing! Did he plagiarize again?” 

Siwon looked like he didn’t know whether he was supposed to protect employer-employee confidentiality or give Mi the dirt on Kyuhyun.

“It was just a little misunderstanding?” he eventually said, wavering at the end like a tiny child trying unsuccessfully to convince his mother that he hadn’t emptied the cookie jar. Mi was friends with Heechul. Clearly Siwon valued his own safety over Kyuhyun’s. Kyuhyun scowled. Traitor.

“Kyuhyun!” Mi didn’t hit him or anything, but he did stomp off in an incredibly girly way and when Kyuhyun heard the jangling of keys he knew he was in trouble. 

“You better not be taking your apartment key off my ring!” He yelled over his shoulder out the door.

“I hope you like your stupid sleeping bag in your cold, empty living room!” Mi yelled back.

“Guys,” Ryeowook pleaded. “Indoor voices, please.”

_The key to your heart is already in your true love’s hand._

“Heechul moved his new roommate in today. Some Chinese friend of Siwon’s. So. You’re stuck with me now,” Kyuhyun said when he felt Mi leaning over his shoulder at work. Again.

“Does this mean I have to stop locking you out?” warm hands rested lightly on his shoulders. 

“That’s exactly what it means.”

“I guess I’m okay with that,” warm lips touched his cheek.

“Mi! You can’t do that here. We’re going to get fired for PDA.”

Mi scoffed and sat down on the edge of Kyuhyun’s desk, narrowly avoiding sitting on his mouse only on the part of Kyuhyun’s deft and precise interference. 

“As though Siwon would.”

“You never know.”

“Anyway, I thought you wouldn’t mind being fired from here. You’re always complaining about how much you hate it.”

“Yeah, but no one else will pay me so much to write bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit! It’s Ancient Chinese Wisdom for Everyday Lives.”

“It’s fortune cookie advice.”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Kyuhyun stared at him.

“I wonder if Heechul would mind me sharing a room with him for a while?”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Mi said airily, pushing himself off the desk with a child-like swing of his beanpole legs. “I think he and his roommate are really looking forward to some **quality** time together.”

It took a lot to make Kyuhyun blank out but, all things considered, a little bit of time staring off into space with dead eyes while his brain tried desperately to scrub the resulting mental image out was infinitely better than having to live with it.

_Don’t ever take a job with a fortune cookie factory._

“Oh my god,” Kyuhyun got out over his rib-aching laughter. “Oh my god, they printed it. Sungmin must have skipped over it when he was sending the list to the printers.”

“Huh, what?” Mi leaned over the cartons of Chinese takeaway between them, knocked his glasses from the top of his head to the tip of his nose, and read the tiny piece of paper in Kyuhyun’s hand. And then he stared.

“I guess you’re the one who’ll be staying home with the kids then,” he said finally. “Since you’re going to get fired and you’ll be able to be a full-time mother.”

Kyuhyun didn’t tell him that he’d already got the best thing out of that job. He was pretty sure they both knew it.


End file.
